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Compounding Knowledge

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Re: Compounding Knowledge

#2
I wonder to what extent Warren Buffet is Warren Buffet because of how he thinks and acts (like all of these non-fiction authors selling books by using his name would have us believe), and to what extent he is the product of media selection bias. -- If you take a large enough group of people who take risky stakes that are large enough (like the world of financial asset management), then one of them is bound to be as successful as Warren Buffet, even if they all behave randomly.

Re: Compounding Knowledge

#3

I wonder to what extent Warren Buffet is Warren Buffet because of how he thinks and acts (like all of these non-fiction authors selling books by using his name would have us believe), and to what extent he is the product of media selection bias. -- If you take a large enough group of people who take risky stakes that are large enough (like the world of financial asset management), then one of them is bound to be as s…

Except that he has been consistently successful over a very long period, unlike, say a Paulson who one could claim got lucky in 2008.

Re: Compounding Knowledge

#4

I wonder to what extent Warren Buffet is Warren Buffet because of how he thinks and acts (like all of these non-fiction authors selling books by using his name would have us believe), and to what extent he is the product of media selection bias. -- If you take a large enough group of people who take risky stakes that are large enough (like the world of financial asset management), then one of them is bound to be as s…

There is such a thing as information, knowledge, wisdom and finally free will.

Warren Buffet is Warren Buffet because of the way he consumed the information available to him, interpreted it and finally reacted to it.

Certainly, Warren does not control the many factors in the environments he found himself in, factors that was favorable for him to get to where he is today and factors that were obstacles to him. But his chosen actions are his, the paths he took, the burdens, the risks, and the responsibilities.

I would perhaps think of him as wise, not a genius or any such worship nonsense.

Re: Compounding Knowledge

#5

I wonder to what extent Warren Buffet is Warren Buffet because of how he thinks and acts (like all of these non-fiction authors selling books by using his name would have us believe), and to what extent he is the product of media selection bias. -- If you take a large enough group of people who take risky stakes that are large enough (like the world of financial asset management), then one of them is bound to be as s…

People like him, are made by many, many random acts, and of course dedication, around 10.000 hours is need it for be an expert in any field, any. What if "grandfather who was a grocer" was a plumber instead?

I Strongly recommend this book: Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell.

He studies outliers, their family, culture, timing. One of many fun facts is that almost every pro-hockey player in Canada is born in the early's month jan, feb, mar.

Why? they compete versus small children when their are kids, and those months of strength give them advantage, which sent them into better teams, with better coaches and so on..

Re: Compounding Knowledge

#7

I wonder to what extent Warren Buffet is Warren Buffet because of how he thinks and acts (like all of these non-fiction authors selling books by using his name would have us believe), and to what extent he is the product of media selection bias. -- If you take a large enough group of people who take risky stakes that are large enough (like the world of financial asset management), then one of them is bound to be as s…

The key to me, it seems, would be to evaluate his decision making process as opposed to merely examining the outcome. If the stated rationale used at the outset is validated (repeatedly), then it stands to reason his success is due to more than simply being lucky.

I'm not very familiar with Warren Buffet or the world he operates in, but my understanding is that he does not in fact take particularly risky stakes and explicitly stays away from verticals he's not familiar with. Hence my personal opinion would be that how he "thinks and acts" has directly contributed to his success - but happy to be proven wrong.

Re: Compounding Knowledge

#8
One of the greatest things about Warren Buffet is that he wants to share with everybody the techniques for accumulating wealth.

YouTube is loaded with videos in which Buffet explains clearly how to get rich slowly but surely.

He's even got a cartoon series for kids, the Secret Millionaire's Club. (http://www.smckids.com/)

Buffet has figured out how to reliably win the game, he wants everybody to have that ability. He's a good guy.

Re: Compounding Knowledge

#9

I wonder to what extent Warren Buffet is Warren Buffet because of how he thinks and acts (like all of these non-fiction authors selling books by using his name would have us believe), and to what extent he is the product of media selection bias. -- If you take a large enough group of people who take risky stakes that are large enough (like the world of financial asset management), then one of them is bound to be as s…

I can't find the quote, but Buffett himself addresses this somewhere by saying that while you can get very lucky in finance, if the lucky ones all come from a particular city (Omaha) with a particular philosophy, something might be up.

Re: Compounding Knowledge

#10
This concept is essentially the reason why “being able to quickly google the answers to questions” is inferior to “learning, knowing and remembering the answer.” The former treats a piece of information as an independent, context-free item, while the latter allows you to “digest” the information and understand the answer at a deeper level, to the point where it changes the types of questions you ask.

Unfortunately our society doesn’t seem to recognize this and actively encourages not learning certain facts because they are easily googleable.

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